I couldn’t hold my laugh in any longer. “I fuck ing love you,” I said.
“I’m still working on my theory. What do you know about the girl Ilya just broke up with? Other than her abuse toward him? Anything?” Stephen asked.”Not much, other than I’d happily kick her a ss,” I said. I was thinking back over what I’d gotten from Ilya, chewing on my lip again. When I looked up, they were all looking at me, slightly amused. I could see Ivan’s black eyes, but this time I didn’t feel his anger, nor did I feel Adrik’s. I turned to look at Adrik, whose eyes were also black.
“Did I do that again?” I asked, confused.
“Yours went black when you were thinking about the chick Ilya broke up with! You told him that she wasn’t entirely human. Your demon confirms it,” Adrik said.
“When did you tell him that?” Misha asked.
“The morning after they got back. She was trying to make Viktor see how serious the situation was. She said it would’ve killed Ilya if he hadn’t fixed him. Ilya was apologetic, but Sephie offered to kick her as s, then told him she wasn’t exactly human and that he was lucky to get away from her.”
Adrik said.
“I was trying to be somewhat overdramatic at that moment, to be fair,” I said..
“Okay, dramatics aside, what if there was like a lingering effect from that chick still on Ilya. Like whatever demon that chick had was trying to break Ilya down enough that it could either jump to him or another demon could get into him. Ivan can’t see it because it’s not actually a demon, but we all felt the oppressive sadness from Viktor that Sephie couldn’t shake. What if it was the same sort of thing on Ilya? It just follows him around, wearing him down little by little until he’s finally weak enough that another demon con get in?” Stephen said.
“If I’ve learned anything from all this, it’s that there’s a reason for literally everything. Even knowing whether red pandas do, in fact, like pancakes. There’s a reason that Sephie got that cloud from Viktor and it looks like it was so we could figure out what happened to Ilya since neither Ivan nor 1 could see anything on him,” Andrei said, grinning at me.
“Do we know what happens when someone’s demon takes over completely and their soul either gets ejected or it dies? Does the demon stick with that body or does it jump to another one? Does it need a soul to work the body?” Stephen asked, looking at me.
“Why are you looking at me when you ask those difficult questions? I’m still working on the simple math problem of red pandas and pancakes. You jumped all the way to quantum physics,” I said.
“If one soul on one side of the universe gets ejected, does that mean a red panila on the other side of the universe also eats pancakes at the same time?” Misha asked, thoughtfully.
Adrik turned me to face him, trying to hide his smile. “You did this,” he said, pointing to Stephen and Misha.
Sephte
It was three more days before anyone saw Viktor again. After the second day lan and I started to get worried about him, so we decided to go check. The guys knew that Viktor was at least in his apartment this time. They could see the light under the door at night, Adrik sent Andrei and Misha with us as well.
“I think he’s fine now,” I said, teasing Adrik about being overprotective of me.Viktor lixed him. It shouldn’t be an issue this time.”
“I don’t care. You’re still not allowed to touch him and you’re taking all three of them,” he said, very firmly. “Or else you wait until my meetings are done and Ivan and I will go with you. But you’re still not allowed to touch hij He had the slightest hint of a smile creeping up one side of his mouth as he laid down his ground rules.
“You’re very cranky,” I said, walking to him. Ivan was waiting just outside the door, along with the Wonder Twins. “It makes me want to f u ck it out of you,” I thought as I made my eyes go black. His immediately changed to blackin response and I was hit with his intense desire for me.
“You do not play fair, solnishko,” he responded. He groaned quietly as he pulled me to him, kissing me deeply. I heard the elevator doors signal the arrival of his next meeting. I pulled back so I could look at his eyes. They were still black. I quickly thought about how much I loved him, trying to make mine change to blue. For the first time, I saw his change from black to normal blue. The black slowly faded into the background as the blue mixed in and slowly took over once more. He raised his eyebrow, noticing my look of wonderment.
“I just saw yours change for the first time. Now I understand why you like watch it so much,” I told him. He pressed his lips gently to mine as Stephen walked in with his next meeting.
He said, in Russian, “I love you, solnishko. Come back when you’re done.”
“How could I refuse?” I responded, in Russian. I walked out of his office, grabbing Stephen’s arm on the way out.
“You guys look like you’re about to get into trouble,” he said, still speaking Rusian. Everyone preferred Russian during the day in the office. It kept everyone else from looking too closely at me. They knew they wouldn’t be able to understand anything they were saying, so they largely ignored the guys. People still stared a little too much for my liking whenever I was with them, but I was trying to get over my aversion to the attention.
The guys, in their usual protective way, did what they do best and kept me as ut of sight as possible from everyone else.
“We’re going to check on Viktor,” I said. “He wouldn’t let me go with just Ivan I’m also not allowed to touch Ilya.” I pointed to Ivan, then Andrei, and finally Misha. “So, it’s on you three to make sure I don’t touch him. I make no promises I’ll be able to control myself.”
Stephen laughed quietly, but he agreed with Adrik. “Until we know for sure what really happened, I think that’s sage advice, Seph. I don’t think you should touch him either.”
Ivan’s giant arms wrapped around me, trapping my arms to my sides. “Okay, ncess. We’ve got it covered. Let’s go.” He started walking us toward the elevator, making me laugh.
I knocked quietly on Viktor’s door. Ilya opened the door soon after, surprised to see us all standing there. He looked even better than the last time I’d seen him. The first time I saw him, he looked much older than his actual age this time, he looked younger. Much healthier and much more vibrant. He smiled warmly when he saw us and immediately stepped back from the doc, motioning us inside.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.